“Things should be carried out perfectly” appearing in the last line of the document issued by an economic ministry was the sentence that basically determined the outcome of a dispute between Korea and another country about seven years ago. This wording was the translation of the Korean original (reading “Man-jeon-eul-gi-ha-da”). The translation was prepared by the other side and Korea challenged its accuracy. Was the translation correct? Yes and no. Yes, because it is arguably a literal translat

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2012

With the election of Ms. Park Geun-hye as president of South Korea, Korea has its first woman leader in over a thousand years. The last woman to govern Korea was Queen Jinsong, who ruled in the ninth century. Ms. Park comes from a famous political family. Her father, President Park Chung-hee, was the architect of Korea’s economic miracle. Something of a dictator, he was assassinated in 1979 by his own intelligence chief in a dispute over how long his 16-year-rule should continue. Ms. Park’s moth

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2012

In February 2013, we will have a female president for the first time in our history. Since electing a woman is something that even the United States has not been able to do yet, Koreans are very proud. Only a few years ago, women were reluctant to vote for a female president, thinking that a male president would perform much better in the hostile political arena. In the last presidential election, however, many Korean women reportedly voted for Park Geun-hye and many men did as well. Korean poli

Viewpoints Dec. 25, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC ― One of the greatest challenges that U.S. President Barack Obama will face in his second term is Iran’s pursuit of advanced nuclear technologies. While a nuclear Iran would damage America’s strategic position in the Middle East, action aimed at forestalling Iran’s nuclear progress also carries serious strategic and economic consequences.Armed with nuclear weapons, Iran would be better able to project influence, intimidate its neighbors, and protect itself. As a result, the United

Viewpoints Dec. 24, 2012

ZANZIBAR ― It is time for the world’s major central banks to reconsider how they conduct monetary policy. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are grappling with sustained economic weakness, despite years of low interest rates. In Japan, Shinzo Abe, the opposition Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate for prime minister, campaigned for a more expansionary monetary policy ahead of the general election on Dec. 16. And central banks in both the United Kingdom and China are coming u

Viewpoints Dec. 24, 2012

WASHINGTON ― The debate over whether Chuck Hagel should be appointed secretary of defense has centered on his sometimes critical views of Israel. But that’s the wrong issue. The question is whether Hagel is the right person to run the Pentagon at a delicate moment of transition in defense policy and spending. Hagel has been unusually blunt in resisting political pressure from pro-Israel groups, which led Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, to charge that his past comments “border

Viewpoints Dec. 23, 2012

In the story “The Library of Babel” (1941), the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges imagines the universe as a gigantic library, consisting of an indefinite number of hexagonal rooms, each filled with rows of books. “Each book,” writes Borges, “is of four hundred and ten pages; each page, of forty lines, each line, of some eighty letters which are in black color.” Most of the text inside the books, however, consists of sequences of letters utterly incomprehensible and unreadable to the people inh

Viewpoints Dec. 23, 2012

America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society.Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns, we’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising - even faster than the rate of adult poverty. We now have the highest rate of child poverty in the developed world.And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb. America has the third-worst

Viewpoints Dec. 21, 2012

WASHINGTON ― Reports from inside two Syrian chemical weapons facilities offer some chilling new evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime developed special vehicles last year for moving and mixing the weapons ― and an unconfirmed allegation that Lebanese allies of the regime, presumably in Hezbollah, may have been trained 11 months ago in the weapons’ use. A Syrian source provided a detailed account in a telephone conversation over the weekend, drawing on intelligence provided to him by a

Viewpoints Dec. 20, 2012

NEW YORK ― The brutal murder of 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut, shakes us to the core as individuals and requires a response as citizens. The United States seems to reel from one mass gun killing to another ― roughly one a month this year alone. Easy access to guns in the U.S. leads to horrific murder rates relative to other highly educated and wealthy societies. America needs to find a better way.Other countries have done so. Between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, Austra

Viewpoints Dec. 19, 2012